Visual Cues
Visual text cues-- (indentation, horizontal lines, and page breaks) are often ignored by screen readers which run the separate elements together.
To solve this problem the following should be considered:
1. Use tags to separate different paragraphs, footnotes or other structures. For instance, tags can be used for navigation buttons and page information to reduce confusion.
2. Use ALT Text for graphical page separators or headers. ALT Text can provide page information and give structural cues that divide the page into meaningful pieces.
3. Avoid horizontal lines since they can be confused for text entry lines in forms by the Lynx browser.
Lists
Sighted readers can easy identify a vertical lists in a written text. However, screen reader users lack the some very vital information necessary to make sense of lists. They have difficulty: 1. understanding when the list starts and where it ends 2. When each list item ends 3. Distinguishing whether there are sub lists and 3. how many list items are present.
Website designers can avoid these problems by considering the following:
1. Lists should be labeled with a tag at the start such as a Listname
2. Number each of the choices so the user can enter the list with an idea of its total length. This also aids the user since they can remember the number of the items that they are interested in. The numbers also break up the text so that each item can be individually perceived.
3. Sub-lists can be represented alphabetically.